Page 966 - les-miserables

This convent was for Jean Valjean like an island sur-
rounded by gulfs. Henceforth, those four walls constituted
his world. He saw enough of the sky there to enable him to
preserve his serenity, and Cosette enough to remain happy.
A very sweet life began for him.
He inhabited the old hut at the end of the garden, in
company with Fauchelevent. This hovel, built of old rub-
bish, which was still in existence in 1845, was composed, as
the reader already knows, of three chambers, all of which
were utterly bare and had nothing beyond the walls. The
principal one had been given up, by force, for Jean Valjean
had opposed it in vain, to M. Madeleine, by Father Fau-
chelevent. The walls of this chamber had for ornament, in
addition to the two nails whereon to hang the knee-cap and
the basket, a Royalist bank-note of ‘93, applied to the wall
over the chimney-piece, and of which the following is an
exact facsimile:—
{GRAPHIC HERE}
This specimen of Vendean paper money had been nailed
to the wall by the preceding gardener, an old Chouan, who
had died in the convent, and whose place Fauchelevent had
taken.
Jean Valjean worked in the garden every day and made
himself very useful. He had formerly been a pruner of trees,
and he gladly found himself a gardener once more. It will be
remembered that he knew all sorts of secrets and receipts
for agriculture. He turned these to advantage. Almost all
the trees in the orchard were ungrafted, and wild. He bud-
ded them and made them produce excellent fruit.

966 Les Miserables